Johnson: Soup kitchen's truck stolen; owner doesn't worry

John Grooman, 65, is grills ribs at his home in Lakewood on Friday. Grooman runs a soup kitchen organization that feeds some 1,100 people each week. Last week, someone stole the truck he uses and all of its equipment. CARLOS DELGADO, FOR THE REGISTER

In the wee small hours of Friday a week ago, someone stole John Grooman's 2006 Chevy Silverado from the driveway of his home. He could care less.

OK, this is a bit of an exaggeration. It isn't, though, much of one.

"I just wonder what God is going to do next," is as much as the 65-year-old man in conversation the other day will say of the theft.

The truck was his everything.

In it were his three portable grills, six burners, tables, propane tanks and all of the cooking supplies and trays he uses to feed nearly 1,100 homeless and needy people four days each week through his Five Loaves and Two Fish soup kitchen ministry in Huntington Beach, Stanton and Long Beach.

"He told me I was focused on the 'stuff,' but he was focused on the commitments he had made to others," said Nancy Arriola, who volunteers at Grooman's soup kitchen at Calvary Chapel Beachside in Huntington Beach every Friday, and was the person who told me of the man's plight.

When I spoke with him, Grooman was busy trying to replace the lost items. There are people to feed, he told me.

To put the truck theft into true perspective, you have to know John Grooman's weekly schedule.

On Mondays, he sets up at the Stanton Community Center where he feeds 100 to 130 low-income families. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, he restocks his supplies.

It means taking trips to Orange County food banks, to Costco and Vons supermarkets for pastries and breads, and to Smart & Final for meat that they sell to him at half the regular price.

"Just before the 'sell-by' date, I buy it and I freeze it," he explained.

How does he pay for it all? He never asks for donations from the homeless, he says repeatedly. "That would be stealing from them."

The money comes, is as much as he will allow.

He is a contractor by trade, but retired years ago, leaving his Manna Construction Co. to his brother. He was called, he believes, to run the soup kitchen in 1977, the year he said he was "saved."

It was then he was attending a church in Corona. One day, the pastor asked if, after services, he would run the coffee and donuts table that was used to support the church's missionary work.

John Grooman, 65, is grills ribs at his home in Lakewood on Friday. Grooman runs a soup kitchen organization that feeds some 1,100 people each week. Last week, someone stole the truck he uses and all of its equipment. CARLOS DELGADO, FOR THE REGISTER
John Grooman, 65, is photographed at his home in Lakewood. Grooman runs a soup kitchen organization that feeds some 1,100 people each week. Last week, someone stole the truck he uses and all of its equipment. CARLOS DELGADO, FOR THE REGISTER
John Grooman, 65, grills ribs at his home in Lakewood on Friday. Grooman runs a soup kitchen organization that feeds some 1,100 people each week. Last week, someone stole the truck he uses and all of its equipment. CARLOS DELGADO, FOR THE REGISTER

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